By Belinda Nolan
WHEN inspiration beckons, Mimi Velevska has no choice but to obey.
She has been known to pen lyrics while driving on the freeway or half asleep during the small hours of the morning.
“I have no control over when it happens,” she said.
“I might be driving and have to pull over to the side of the road and key it into my phone or write it down on scraps of paper.
“When a beat comes into your head, you don’t want to forget it so you have to drop everything and go with it.”
The Cairnlea songbird has been writing and performing her own music for more than a decade and is hoping to release her first EP album at the end of the year.
The 21-year-old beat four local bands to take top billing at Brimbank’s Battle of the Bands competition this month.
While she’s known as a solo artist, Ms Velevska enlisted the help of a guitarist friend to perform her unique fusion of jazz, soul and hip hop.
Although she insists she never suffers from nerves, the singer did admit to feeling slightly daunted during her latest performance.
“Battle of the Bands was a bit confronting because we were performing not even a metre from the stage so it was really close quarters.
“We could see people’s facial expressions and see if they were talking.
“But it didn’t worry me. It actually gave me an adrenalin rush and made me want to perform better.
“I wanted to make people stop talking and listen to me instead.”
Ms Velevska didn’t expect to make it into the competition, let alone win.
A late entrant, the singer was only allowed to compete after another band pulled out of the competition.
“I was pretty lucky and I guess it goes to show that you should always give things a go because you never know,” Ms Velevska said.
She will perform at the Battle of the Bands regional finals in the hope of scoring a lucrative recording voucher and a chance at the Grand Final.
